Sethi: Pakistani media challenging military

Pakistani
journalist Najam Sethi was in the United States last week to talk about the
challenges facing his country at a critical moment. Ever the contrarian, he
also sees opportunities. "For the first time the media is challenging the
military," he told an audience of friends and colleagues at CPJ offices in New
York. "That's the biggest positive development out of the whole Pakistan
debacle."

He was referring, of course, to the "OBL incident"--when,
during the early morning hours of May 2, a commando unit of U.S. Navy Seals
infiltrated Pakistan and carried out a raid that killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama
Bin Laden. The attack occurred in the garrison town of Abbottabad, home of the
country's most prestigious military academy and a popular retirement
destination for former generals and army officers.

Sethi--editor of The
Friday Times and host of a popular Urdu-language political
program on Geo TV--notes that the focus
of the Pakistani media has not been on how Bin Laden was able to find sanctuary
in the country. Instead, attention has turned to the effectiveness of the
Pakistani military and intelligence services. "If you don't have the ability to
stop two U.S. helicopters from coming in and wreaking havoc, why are we giving
you billions of rupees every year?" Sethi asked, echoing a question he says is reverberating
across the media spectrum--from the elite English-language press to the populist
Urdu-language broadcasters.

"The civil-military imbalance is finally being questioned," Sethi
said, by journalists and by opposition leaders. He credited former prime
minister Nawaz Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), for
pushing for an independent inquiry into the U.S. operation in Abbottabad and
parliamentary scrutiny of the military and intelligence budgets--both audacious
moves in the context of the military's dominance in Pakistan.

Sethi, who has long argued for improved bilateral relations with
neighboring India, also noted Sharif's controversial remarks last week calling
for Pakistan to stop treating India as its "biggest enemy." The prevailing national
security paradigm, centered on perceived threats from arch-rival India,
provides the basis for the "military's political supremacy over the civilians
and economic stranglehold over the national budget," Sethi wrote in a recent
editorial for The
Friday Times.

It was interesting to hear Sethi's take on Nawaz Sharif's
latest political incarnation. Twelve years ago, Sethi was one of the targets of
then-Prime Minister Sharif's crackdown on critical journalists. Sethi was taken into custody in a
brutal pre-dawn attack on his home on May 8, 1999, when dozens of government
agents broke into the house. Officers pulled Sethi out of bed, and beat him
with clubs and handcuffs, according to his wife, publisher Jugnu Mohsin. When Mohsin
asked the men to produce a warrant for the arrest, one of them threatened to
shoot Sethi immediately and leave his corpse in place of any warrant. Sethi was
held without charge for nearly a month. He was released only after a concerted
campaign led by Mohsin and joined by CPJ and other international groups.

(Another high-profile target during that period was Hussain Haqqani, now
Pakistan's famously "silver-tongued" ambassador to the United States. On May 4,
1999, Haqqani--then a prominent journalist, political commentator, and leader of
the opposition--was similarly abducted and detained for two months.)

Najam Sethi and Jugnu Mohsin
received CPJ's International Press Freedom Award
in 1999. At the time, they asked us to watch their backs. Sethi made that request again
during this visit, stressing the importance of international groups like CPJ
and Human Rights Watch. "It's
rough out there," Sethi said. "One never knows whether the Taliban is gunning
for you or whether the agencies are gunning for you. And sometimes you don't
know because one is operating at the behest of the other."

While Sethi still has to operate with caution, he hopes that
his status as a senior citizen might give him some protection. "We've paid our
dues," he said. "And it could be counter-productive. They can't take that risk.
If they pick me up, I may have a heart attack and pop off." He chuckled,
reveling in the gallows humor.

"And I'm an equal-opportunity offender, so they leave me
alone."

We hope so. And we've got your back.

Kavita Menon is a
senior program officer and former Asia program coordinator for CPJ. She has worked
as a journalist and human rights researcher in countries including Afghanistan,
Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Follow her on Twitter @kavita718.-

Kavita Menon, Senior Program Officer for CPJ, has reported across South Asia and contributed to news outlets including the Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and NPR. She previously headed CPJ’s Asia program and led missions to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Follow her on Twitter @kavita718.